Awesome list dedicated to Windows Subsystem for Linux
This page lists names, links and short descriptions. The original list on GitHub is the source and belongs to its authors.
is a family of proprietary operating systems, all of which are developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. Currently Windows 10 is Microsoft's flagship operating system. Windows 10 is available for Intel x86-based and arm64-based PCs. The Windows Subsystem for Linux first shipped in Windows 10…
Microsoft blog announcing WSL2
WSL2 presentation at Microsoft Build 2019
The source for the Linux kernel used in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.
Microsoft announcement and preview details for WSL Containers.
at MSDN.
at MSDN.
from docs.microsoft.com.
from docs.microsoft.com.
from Microsoft Developer YouTube channel.
from Microsoft developer Jessie Frazelle.
Microsoft's official guide for WSL.
Microsoft's official guide for Windows Server.
A basic guide for how to get setup with the WSL feature that is included with Windows 10.
A book for anyone to get started with Unix/Linux environments.
Master the command line in one page.
The Bash Academy is an initiative to promote the bash shell language and educate people on its use.
Nice up-to-date list of useful tools.
One developer's approach to their development environment using WSL1.
From the computer science department at Old Dominion University.
From the computer science department at University of Utah.
Another developer's approach using the third-party terminal MobaXterm.
A very simple bootstrap script to install some development basic tools on Debian/Ubuntu on WSL.
YouTube talk by Windows kernel team member Sarah Cooley on WSL for Windows.
are required to be installed on Windows. 11.7 is recommended.
will instruct how to install the CUDA requirements inside WSL. Do not install a driver inside WSL. The Windows driver will be used through the 5.10 kernel.
Checklist to connect Arduino board from WSL 1.
for Ubuntu 16.04. Supported through April 2021.
for Ubuntu 18.04. Supported through April 2023. Very stable but some packages and libraries may be older.
for Ubuntu 20.04. Supported through April 2025.
for Ubuntu 22.04. Most recent update. Newer packages but more likely to encounter bugs. Supported through April 2027.
for Ubuntu Community Preview. These builds are previews for testing new features and ideas, these are for early adopters May be Unstable, Will Have Bugs report issues and give feedback below.
guide to using apt from Ubuntu.
from Ubuntu.
More Information About the Ubuntu Community Previews
Report Issues and Give Feedback on the Community Previews Here.
for Debian Stretch.
post-installation guide for Debian users with a focus on the command line from Debian.
guide to using apt from Debian.
from Debian.
for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
for OpenSUSE Leap 15.3.
for OpenSUSE Leap 15.2.
for SUSE Enterprise Linux 15.
from OpenSUSE.
from SUSE.
for Oracle Linux 7 Update 9.
for Oracle Linux 8 Update 5.
is an open-source, community-driven Linux operating system that fills the gap left by the discontinuation of the CentOS Linux stable release.
A mini Linux distribution for WSL powered by busybox.
ArchLinux in WSL.
Alpine in WSL.
Fedora in WSL.
Install any GNU/Linux distribution userspace in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with compressed RootFS tarballs, Docker containers, or ISO files.
General purpose WSL installer and launcher.
Scripts to replace the distribution behind WSL with any other Linux distribution published on Docker Hub. Includes alpine, CentOS, Fedora, Clear, and others.
Install acme / plan9port on Debian, Ubuntu, or Kali Linux distributions on WSL.
CentOS as a WSL distro.
Red Hat Universal Base Image as a WSL distro. If you have a Red Hat Subscription, you can register and subscribe the system and use it as RHEL.
Fedora as a WSL distro.
Amazon Linux as a WSL distro.
Gentoo as a WSL distro.
Devuan Linux as a WSL Distro. Devuan is a Debian variant without the complexities and dependencies of systemd.
Manjaro as a WSL2 distro based on wsldl.
Slackware as a WSL distro.
X server for Windows 10 on the Microsoft Store. 💰
X server for Windows with hardware acceleration compiled with Visual Studio.
An X server for Windows 10 with an app launcher, distro manager, shortcut creator, and ssh launcher.
X server for Windows from NetSarang. 💰
An older X server for Windows. Has not been updated since 2016.
The current version of Xming, that is updated monthly. Donate at least £10 to have access to it. 💰
Cygwin/X is a port of the X Window System to the Cygwin API layer for Windows.
The new open-source Windows Terminal.
Mintty as a terminal for WSL.
A terminal emulator for WSL, based on mintty, fatty and wslbridge.
A terminal for a more modern age.
ConEmu aims to be handy, comprehensive, fast and reliable terminal where you may host any console application for the Windows command line, PowerShell, or WSL.
Enhanced terminal for Windows with X11 server, tabbed SSH client, network tools and much more.
Open source project to build a terminal emulator and expand it with new features to support modern workflows.
Feature-rich tabbed terminal. Requires X server.
A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
A Windows-first, local-first terminal for managing connections, sessions, and workspaces.
A cross-platform terminal that auto-detects WSL along with PowerShell, CMD, and Git Bash on Windows.
Windows SSH, SFTP, Telnet, and serial terminal client with tabbed sessions, Unicode support, and smart-card/certificate authentication.
Provision WSL using Ansible.
A full-featured utility for managing WSL.
Raft is a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution manager in native C#/XAML. 💰
A graphical tool to manage (run, stop, import, export...) WSL.
Free, open-source GUI for WSL: install distros from a catalogue or any Docker image, copy, move, back up and compact them, edit .wslconfig, mount disks, manage a remote host's WSL over SSH; optional AI assistant and MCP server. Also manages native Linux VMs on macOS.
A lightweight desktop application for managing WSL distributions built with Tauri.
A modern, lightweight GUI dashboard for managing WSL distributions.
Use git installed on WSL from Visual Studio Code on Windows.
Store passwords for gpg-agent in Windows Credential Manager
Execute Linux executables as .exe files on Windows.
A collection of 'proxy' batch files that can be used to route requests to the WSL version of a command.
Easily convert Windows to WSL path names and vice-versa.
Open files with xdg-open in WSL from Windows applications.
A Go utility for WSL to open files, directories, and URLs in their default Windows applications.
Easily Make WSL Linux Apps Windows File Handlers.
Check if the current process is running inside Windows Subsystem for Linux, useful for scripting.
Start common GUI applications under WSL as under Linux.
Use Windows Hello as your credential for sudo.
Make xclip and xsel in WSL read and write on the Windows instead of the Linux clipboard. .
Adds mappings in Vim to write and read on the Windows clipboard. .
Run WSL commands directly in Windows. Also allows to use WSL git/node/etc. in Visual Studio Code or another software. Combines functionality of utilities like wslgit, wslnodejs, wslexec etc. with simpler usage.
SDK for Windows Subsystem for Linux for .NET 5, 6 and Standard 2.1
A collection of utilities for Windows 10 Linux Subsystem, such as enabling sound in WSL and creating your favorite linux GUI application shortcuts on Windows 10.
A Python3 library for WSL specific tasks.
Script providing network connectivity to WSL 2 when blocked by VPN.
xdg-open replacement for WSL that opens files and links using Windows applications.
A Go library and CLI for executing Windows binaries from WSL.
A native Windows desktop dashboard for WSL Containers with tray-hosted backend operations.
A native CLI that brings dip-like development workflows to Microsoft WSL Containers (WSLC).
A version of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler built and optimized for WSL and hosted in a PPA for Debian and Ubuntu-based WSL distros.
Claude Code setup for WSL2 + Windows Terminal: Codex delegation, screenshot paste as WSL paths, Windows notifications, LSP wiring, statusline, and safety/context hygiene hooks.
BSCP lets you boot Windows directly into a Linux desktop experience such as xfce4 using Windows native login and a combination of Xming & WSL upon login.
Run TeamViewer on a WSL2 Linux desktop, reachable from anywhere with no port forwarding or VPN (unlike VNC), fully unattended. Includes the fix for a WSL-specific bug that otherwise blocks TeamViewer's screen sharing.
Configuration files and scripts for creating an i3-based environment inside WSL.
Manifest-driven dotfiles for WSL bash plus native Windows (Git Bash, PowerShell) and macOS zsh; one shared sh layer, dry-run installers.
Enumerates installed WSL packages.
Reference launcher app for developing your own WSL distribution Microsoft Store package.
Reveal hidden COM interface between WSL and Lxss Manager Service.
wslbridge is a Cygwin program that allows connecting to the WSL command-line environment over TCP sockets, as with ssh, but without the overhead of configuring an SSH server.
Install any GNU/Linux distribution userspace in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with compressed RootFS tarballs, Docker containers, or ISO files.
This is a solarized color scheme for the Windows command prompt that works in WSL.
An ssh-agent compatible helper for interacting with Pageant from processes running on the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
A bridge between Windows Pageant and WSL2.
Using a Yubikey for SSH Authentication on Windows Seamlessly. Supports WSL and WSL2.
A modern file explorer that supports WSL filesystem.
Use any Docker image as a WSL distro.
A GitHub action to install and setup a Linux distribution for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
A Practical Guide for Developers and IT Professionals
A community powered list of programs that work on the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Reddit subreddit.
IRC channel on Libera.Chat.
IRC channel on OFTC.net.
For reporting issues with WSL.
For developers to send Microsoft feeback on WSL.
Practical guide on how to write portable/cross-platform Node.js code.
Programming question and answer site.
Bash is the GNU Project's shell. Bash is the Bourne Again SHell. Bash is an sh-compatible shell that incorporates useful features from the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh).
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows.
A very nice console emulator built on ConEmu.
PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform.
PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language.
Visual Studio Code ("vscode") is a source code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It includes support for debugging, embedded Git control, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring.
Visual Studio is an IDE from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs, as well as web sites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Store, and…
SFU is a discontinued software package produced by Microsoft which provided a Unix environment on Windows NT and some of its immediate successor operating-systems. TechNet documentation.
Applications and tools for Windows.
🎨 A curated list of delightful VS Code packages and resources.
A curated list of delightful Bash scripts and resources.
A list of awesome shell tools and resources, including libraries and scripts for enhancing the command-line experience.
Linux software.
jaywcjlove/awesome-mac
This project is dedicated to collecting high-quality macOS software and organizing them systematically by different categories for easy search and use.
serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps
🚀 Awesome list of open source applications for macOS. https://t.me/s/opensourcemacosapps
ramitsurana/awesome-kubernetes
A curated list for awesome kubernetes sources :ship::tada:
sindresorhus/awesome-nodejs
:zap: Delightful Node.js packages and resources [BECAUSE OF TOO MUCH SPAM AND LOW-QUALITY SUBMISSIONS, SUBMISSIONS ARE PAUSED TEMPORARILY]
frenck/awesome-home-assistant
A curated list of amazingly awesome Home Assistant resources.
vsouza/awesome-ios
A curated list of awesome iOS ecosystem, including Objective-C and Swift Projects